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theodp writes "If you're the giver or recipient of presents gift-wrapped by Amazon, you may want to take a gander at U.S. Patent No. 8,060,463, granted to Amazon last month for Mining of User Event Data to Identify Users with Common Interests. Among other things, Amazon explains the invention can be used to identify recipients of gifts as Christian or Jewish based on wrapping paper. From the patent: 'The gift wrap used by such other users when purchasing gifts for this user, such as when the gift wrap evidences the user's religion (in the case of Christmas or Hanukkah gift wrap, for example.)'"

You can't easily infer date of giving from date of ordering. We only got one Christmas present delivered in the week before Christmas, because we were planning to be out of town and finished shopping early. Since Christmas falls dead in the middle of Hanukkah this year, you'd really have no idea based on dates.

There used to be a requirement for a working model before a patent could be issued. No longer as of 1880 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_model [wikipedia.org]. I'm pretty sure it is possible to patent things that don't actually work. Items like perpetual motion machines are automatically rejected as a category though.

Items like perpetual motion machines are automatically rejected as a category though.

I think that the patent system that applies here allows perpetual motion machines to be considered iff (if-and-only-if) they are accompanied by a working model. Which would be dangerous, since some designs for perpetual motion machines may involve positive feedback loops, which could turn them into weapons of mass destruction. Seriously mass destruction : more Big Bang than "Little Boy" or "Fat Man".

Well, if they did it wouldn't been the first time I was amazed at someone's skillful hack. I'm still trying to figure out how Aramok knows the lyrics to a song I sampled fron vinyl, burned to CD, then ripped to ogg; I would have thought that not possible either.

No, Christmas isnt really an exclusively christian holiday. I dont know if you can set a year when it changed, or if it ever truly has been since it took off in the US (it wasnt a big deal during the revolutionary war, except for the Germans), but Christmas today is a hybrid holiday-- it is for christians a celebration of Christ's birth, and for others a traditional celebration of family, friends, and togetherness.

A very good friend of mine-- an athiest-- is right now celebrating Christmas with his family,

It's about determining what kind of crap a person will buy; they really don't care why they are buying it. If a Jew buys Christians presents on Amazon then there is a good chance they will be interested in buying more Christians presents on Amazon in the future and marketing can help make that happen.

You mean bigots are making judgements before they have full information at hand? It's almost as if they were prejudging. If only there was a word for the faculty of making judgements before knowing all the facts. If only.

If only there was a word for the faculty of making judgements before knowing all the facts. If only.

There isn't. There's a word for "harming someone based on some superficial characteristic" and that word sounds a lot like pre-judging, but isn't about pre-judging, it's about basing treatment of others based on a pre-judgment. Sometimes that's benign (I'm prejudiced that the guy driving the bus is the bus driver, and I don't bother to check ID every time I get on a bus), and sometimes not. I wouldn't consider targeted advertising (recommendations) as "bigoted" unless it's overtly associated (i.e. not ju

Not even that. My mother converted from Judaism to Catholicism a long time ago, so we celebrate both holidays. I also have atheist and Buddhist friends whom I occasionally buy Christmas presents for, as Christmas has long since ceased to be a truly religious holiday. (I like the Futurama solution of calling the non-religious holiday Xmas, but I don't see it catching on.)

And really, why does Amazon even want this information? Are they going to stop showing me ads for Dawkins polemics because someone sent

Satanist, perhaps is small error. But I think a lot of functional athiests continue to celebrate the holidays they grew up with even if they don't believe in the religious nonsense behind it. This describes almost anyone I know through work or school (although not my family, who finds this idea offensive, and we just don't talk about it), as well as the Sikh family I was standing behind in line to get pictures of my son with Santa.

My kids are growing up with Santa and the Easter bunny, the whole deal. It do

Find some nicer Satanist friends. My Satanist friends have given me presents in the past - a nice half-bottle of whisky from one, and a blowjob from the other. Though what she wanted to do with the semen, I never did ask.

You must be confused. Currently, it's extremists Muslims who kill in the name of their religion. Used to be the Xtians. Satanists, and I mean the real, card-carrying deal, never have. Mind you, I am not an apologist for Satanists. There a bunch of goofy, deluded, histrionic losers, if you ask me, but slaughtering innocents in the name of a religious cause is pretty much against their "religion".

You realize Satanists don't actually worship or even believe in the existence of Satan, right? They're basically anti-Christians, not only disbelieving the factuality of Christian claims, but more emphatically disputing the moral lessons of it, which they consider authoritarian and submissive, in favor of a more individualistic moral code. They just use an alternate character interpretation of the "villain" from their opponents' stories to make that point.

You realize Satanists don't actually worship or even believe in the existence of Satan, right?

No, I didn't know that, and I find that to be disappointing. A Satanless Satanism has no charm at all. If I were a Satanist, I would schism the religion immediately and declare the Satan-deniers to be infidels. You gotta have the horned 'n' hoofed guy, for the artwork alone! I used to think Satanism was a reaction to lame religions, but it sounds like they managed to out-lame their parents.

This is why I have to delve into fiction to find a decent religion. The Cthulhu Cult believes in their guy, so they get to make idols. Old wizard Whateley and Joseph Curwen know Yog-Sothoth is real, because the spells work. A Satanless Satanism -- that's just fucked up. Satanists, WTF are you guys thinking?! Get with it and don't tell me "they change what it is." It was you. You changed.

I know, I know ; it's not very absorbent, it doesn't separate conveniently into useful size sheets, and it tends to form sharp-edged creases which can be... irritating... after a week of eating and drinking too much and getting "over doing it diarrhoea". Better to stick to (ouch!) those packets of shit-wipe that get left in hotel rooms. At least they're in convenient rip-out packages. They're getting rarer though - does anyone

Please stop capitalizing "atheists" and "agnostics"; They're common nouns. (Yes, I realize that you used "atheists" at the beginning of a sentence *this time*, but I bet you usually capitalize it no matter where it occurs, and even if you don't, others reading this do.)

I'd guess that atheists and agnostics will pick less religous themed wrapping paper more often. This year I wrapped gifts with yellow, purple, green and silver striped paper. None of this is supposed to be perfect of course. But as long as you have a statistically significant trend, you can do better than random guessing which is all you can really ask.

Some of us don't do gift wrap at all. The wrapping used by UPS, Fedex, and/or the USPS is good enough. Plain brown paper, with a name and address printed on it. Or, plain brown cardboard, or a red-white-and-blue mailer. What, I'm going to UNwrap something, just to REwrap it in pretty paper? To hell with that! I may possibly tape a bow onto the package that UPS delivers.

If I were a serious Christian, I would be boycotting Christmas. It's a Christianization (and poorly) of an ancient Northern European solstice celebration and fertility orgy. The tree, the Yule log, the lights? None of these things have anything to do with your Christ. You should be embarrassed if you ever thought so.

Thats just not true.

Christmas became a bigger deal in the US in the 18th and 19th centuries (1870s, I believe) when Germans brought the tradition over to the US.In the middle ages in Germany [wikipedia.org], a "paradise tree" was erected by the church; eventually the tradition expanded to include hanging sweets on the tree for children. Its origins are uncertain, but according to wikipedia came from an older christian tradition.

Well, The whole idea was to get large groups of people to switch from their pagan religion to the Christian. Greatest, easiest way to do that? Gradually. By co-opting the date and some of the existing traditions the new religion goes down easier. Soon, people aren't worshipping mother earth, but Jesus Christ. And isn't that the whole idea if you want to spread Christianity? Even furthermore, If there is only one God, the father, son, and holy spirit, then all religions share a portion of truth as they worsh

Clearly, deducing that somebody is Jewish because they bought Hanukkah wrapping paper is a brilliant invention worthy of the full protective power of the United States government and international intellectual property treaties. How else is America going to survive in the information age?

Let me restate: figuring out that somebody is Jewish because they bought wrapping paper with Jewish stars on it IS STEALING. You wouldn't steal a car or a DVD, would you?

Clearly, deducing that somebody is Jewish because they bought Hanukkah wrapping paper is a brilliant invention worthy of the full protective power of the United States government and international intellectual property treaties. How else is America going to survive in the information age?

This one seems like one of the safest useless patents ever. I seriously doubt any of Amazon's competitors would ever infringe on this one either unintentionally or knowingly, since it is so idiotic.

The net result of this is that the patent office got a nice little fee, and Amazon got nothing useful in return (by their own choosing).

C'mon moderators, before you mod something insightful, see if he stated the facts properly. The story says recipient, not buyer. Of course making the deduction from the buyer is obvious, but from the recipient that is... extraordinary, and fully worthy of such governmental protections.

Patents are supposed to be for inventions and implementations, not theories and generic "business ideas."

The US patent system is so stacked against the individual developer and in favour of the established conglomerate that I decided a long time ago that I would never open a US office for my business. Instead, I'll let US companies establish partnerships to deliver services to the US market under their own branding, and let them deal with the US legal nightmare. All contracts will be signed on Canadian

They have such a backlog of patents that the USPO basically has decided that it is up to the courts to decide if a patent is valid or not. I cannot find the exact article that states this, but I did find this one in a past/. article.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100819/12015210689.shtml [techdirt.com]

This is an AMAZING invention! The world of science will be thrilled! Truly a giant leap for mankind! This was EXACTLY the progress in useful arts and science which the forefathers intended when they wrote the constitution!

Seriously, is the USPTO smoking crack? If not, the only explanation is that the USPTO is a corrupt institution.

Of course, I'm one of the apparent minority who tend to adhere to the concept that privacy is still a right.

It's a right in the sense that you have it by Nature, and it can be invaded (that FBI camera in your bathroom) but it can also be given away, even by third-parties (in this case).

The in-person corollary is your brother walks into a store, says, "here, please wrap this gift in menorah paper and mail it to my brother Sid at 123 Main Street...". He's given away your privacy to the clerk. Same for Amazo

I can't be the only one who finds the idea of patents for " Mining of User... Data to Identify User[s]" a bit unnerving....
Of course, I'm one of the apparent minority who tend to adhere to the concept that privacy is still a right.

From a privacy perspective, patents like this are a good thing. Why? Because if individual companies systematically lock up the rights to invade your privacy in various ways (assuming this is an invasion), then they'll all be restricted to violating your privacy in only the ways they have patented. The only legal way for them to violate other aspects of your privacy is to cross-license from or collaborate with the competition. This would slow innovation in privacy violation as much as it does in other a

How many religious symbols can you really find on gift-wrapping anyway? Remember that Christmas trees are not particularly Christian; they're a pagan survival, and here in predominantly Muslim Turkey you can see loads of them put up for New Year celebrations. Angels? Found in several religions. Yule logs? Decidedly pagan. Holly? Super-pagan. Snowmen? Just plain weird.

Christmas trees are, as far as documentation goes, not a pagan survival, they only appeared about 500 years ago in Southwest Germany. At this time, Southwest Germany was christianized for 1000 years already. Nice tradition though.

You are confusing the first recorded (written) decoration of christmas trees with when they were actually put into use. People who practice pagan rituals seldom document them when those rituals might get them killed by the local fanatics. All you know for certain from the documentation is that by the 15th century people in Germany did use Christmas trees without being killed for it.

No. This ist just making up history for the sake of it.The court records of people being convicted and killed because of paganism are there, and there is no evidence of someone being convicted because of a decorated tree.

In the 19th century, it was en vogue to find local roots for about any tradition one could think of, and especially english and german authors were eager to reinterpret about anything catholic (and thus roman) as being derived from celtic or german origins. Many of those speculations are st

Determining religion by presence or absence of circumcision.Determining gender by presence or lack of a penis.Determining age by birth date.Determining quantity by how many of an item is present.and my favorite...Determining the failure of the US patent system by filing stupid patents.

I am going to patent the heuristic thinking processes of a high value sales person 'on a smart phone' because that is totally different from on a computer because it has the words 'smart phone' in the patent.

This is obviously just a distraction to throw off other (r)e-tailers towards the much more useful (but too obvious to be patented) kungfu of forcing people to choose between a handful of options (two in this case) and then categorizing them based on that!Next up, using pizza chains to do marketing demographic research: Would you like a free Coke or Pepsi with your delivery?

...Looks like the MBA's have finally found their way to the USPTO. So much for patent reform.

When I've been to the Arab market in Jerusalem, the shop owners guessed the country I came from (in South America), my religion and the fact I'm a musican, as well as how much I was willing to pay for each item. Guess a simple algorithm is nothing compared to thousands of years of tradition as shopkeepers..

1. A computer-implemented method of matching users to other users, the method comprising: storing, in computer storage, event data comprising order data reflective of items ordered from an electronic catalog by each of a plurality of users; programmatically generating a score that reflects a degree to which item preferen

"Is it possible for a company to blame a computer based system for making stereotypical choices"?

Sure. It's possible for a company (or individual humans) to blame a computer for anything, even something that no computer can do. People blame computers for their own mistakes (and intentional actions) all the time.